To meet the medical need of pets,we develop species-specific therapeuticantibodies from our own platform

adivo is passionate on developing new technologies to expand the range of therapeutic options for veterinarians and pet owners for their companions. A couple of years ago, when Kathrin´s dog was diagnosed with cancer, she became aware of the lack of therapeutic options for her beloved pet. Knowing about innovations in human medicine, the idea was born to transfer the expertise in generating therapeutic antibodies for humans to the veterinary market.

Pet ownership constantly increases and nowadays people are considering their cat or dog as a member of the family. Although pets develop similar geriatric and civilization diseases as humans, there is still a gap in the availability of specific treatments for serious diseases or chronic conditions in companion animals.

Technology

Status Quo

From men to pets...

Veterinary medicine can borrow tools from human practice. The current approach is not universally applicable for each molecule as it requires the availability of an existing compound with well-defined properties.

Many antibody-generating methods rely on already existing molecules that might have been in development for human health and investigate their potential for veterinary medicine. However, these molecules are proteins, that cannot directly be used in another species. They are recognized by the pet’s immune system as being foreign. This so-called immunogenicity has severe impacts especially in diseases requiring repeated dosing. Inactivation and clearance of the drug from the body might be the undesired effect, ultimately diminishing or removing its therapeutic effect.

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Existing antibodies must be adapted to be more ‘pet-like’ thus being recognized as native by the immune system.

Antibody with certain properties

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During the modification process, binding strength and specificity of the parental antibody cannot always be retained, resulting in a loss of functionality and efficacy.

Adaptation to 'pet'

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To obtain a lead candidate that enters clinical development, further optimization might be necessary. These methods can be cumbersome and time consuming.

Modified compound

The adivo way

Changing the picture

Selecting the perfect antibody from species-specific libraries. The synthetic nature of the library allows quick format changes and optimization processes such as affinity maturation.

The phage display method offers full control over the antibody selection process and the possibility to direct the selection towards a desired candidate profile.

The final candidate has an optimal functionality and a low risk for immunogenicity.

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Using our technology platform, we can select antibodies with predefined characteristics allowing the generation of lead candidates with optimal functionality. These candidates are fully-canine without the need of further modifications and can be used in a dog patient.

To our knowledge ‘Caesar’ is the first fully synthetic and fully canine antibody Fab library which uses an innovative concept for the in vitro generation of highly specific antibodies.

The library comprises billions of fully canine antibodies and uses naturally occurring heavy and light chains which translate into structural diversity mimicking the natural IgG repertoire in dogs. Binding regions, so called CDRs were designed to reflect the natural amino acid composition and length variation

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Phage display is a widely used technique for the study of protein–protein interactions that uses bacteriophages to connect both, proteins with their respective genetic information. Since its development in 1985, phage display is one of the most frequently used display methods for combinatorial antibody libraries. In 2018, the Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to two scientists, George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”.

Antibodies derived from phage display methods can be used to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders or to combat

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The adivo technology platform allows to identify best in class antibodies with characteristics that have been pre-defined to meet the required needs.

The canine-phage display library is designed to deliver antibodies against a diverse panel of different targets covering many serious diseases

Collection of billions of fully species specific antibodies

Selection of ‘perfect fit’

The final therapeutic

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Collection of billions of fully species specific antibodies

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Selection of ‘perfect fit’

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The final therapeutic

We are open for partnering with animal health companies that are seeking strategic partnerships to develop therapeutic antibodies for dogs.

The adivo technology platform allows de-novo identification of a panel of antibodies to select a drug candidate with optimal functionality, developability and low risk of immunogenicity.

We offer an in-depth expertise in antibody generation and lead-candidate selection.

Founders

Kathrin Ladetzki-Baehs

Founder and Managing Director
Strategic Leader

Kathrin is Founder and Strategic Leader of adivo. Within this position, she is responsible for the financial strategy of adivo, capital raising activities, building business development partnerships as well as alliance management tasks.

Kathrin is a pharmacist with a PhD in immunology and in-depth knowledge in antibody generation. Prior to founding adivo, she worked for more than 10 years at MorphoSys. Kathrin served in several positions within research and development before becoming Alliance Manager. In this position, she coordinated multiple therapeutic projects in close collaboration with international pharma partners.

Kathrin owns two dogs, Caesar and Canela.

Markus Waldhuber

Co-Founder and Managing Director
Scientific Leader

Markus is Co-Founder and Scientific Leader of adivo. His areas of responsibility include antibody discovery of proprietary and partnered programs, identification of target opportunities as well as technology development.

Markus has a biochemical background and received his PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Before joining adivo, he was Project Team Leader at MorphoSys, supervising a labteam of Scientists and Technical Assistants. In this position, he was responsible for planning and implementing strategies to develop fully human therapeutic antibodies, mainly in collaboration with pharma partners.

Markus' family includes a Labrador called Paula.

News

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Press Release

Pet therapeutic antibody firm adivo announces closure of seed-financing round German biotech company adivo specializing in generating species-specific therapeutic antibodies for companion animals announces that it received a seed financing from three investors. The adivo team aims to address high medical needs in dogs including cancer and chronic inflammation, with the potential of expanding activities into the development of therapeutics for other species in the future.

Martinsried/ Munich, Germany, August 20, 2018 — adivo GmbH was founded by Dr. Kathrin Ladetzki-Baehs and Dr. Markus Waldhuber in March 2018.

“Now, we are very pleased to have gained three strong and reliable partners that share our vision of promoting innovations in veterinary medicine. High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Occident Group AG and MorphoSys AG together served as investors in adivo, thus laying the base to make adivo a success going forward. We will use the investment to push our therapeutic antibody programs forward as well as to continuously improve the adivo technology, while at the same time seeking collaborations with pharma partners to leverage our approach for numerous projects” said Dr. Ladetzki-Baehs, Managing Director of adivo GmbH.

“We are excited to be invested in a company which combines highly motivated people with a powerful technology. adivo will soon provide the right solutions to this market which is still defined by a significant number of high unmet medical needs.” stated Cédric Barra, Investment Manager Lifesciences at Occident Group.

adivo is passionate on developing new technologies to expand the range of therapeutic options for veterinarians and pet owners for their companions. A couple of years ago, when Dr. Ladetzki-Baehs’ dog was diagnosed with cancer, she became aware of the lack of therapeutic options for her beloved pet. Knowing about innovations in human medicine, the idea was born to transfer the expertise in generating therapeutic antibodies for humans to the veterinary market.

“Current antibody concepts used for pet therapeutics face a number of limitations and might not be applicable to each and every existing compound. By developing adivo’s fully canine-based antibody library towards commercialization, we hope that we will be able to generate therapeutics for dogs that are both well tolerated and efficacious,” Dr. Waldhuber, Scientific Managing Director of adivo GmbH said.

In 2018, adivo was founded focussing on therapeutic antibodies for dogs for unmet medical needs such as cancer and chronic inflammatory conditions. In order to facilitate and complete the realization of the adivo founding project, MorphoSys in 2018 granted adivo the rights to the newly built fully synthetic phage display antibody library, mimicking the canine immune globulin repertoire.

“We are very pleased about this successful spin-out from MorphoSys. Today, antibodies are one of the most successful drug classes in human medicine. adivo’s dog antibody library is a great and innovative approach addressing the exciting area of animal health with products generated based on the concept of MorphoSys’s human antibody technology“, commented Dr. Markus Enzelberger, Chief Scientific Officer of MorphoSys. “We wish our former colleagues the best of luck and are looking forward to seeing adivo generate new therapeutic candidates for animals.”

The company is located in the Innovation and Start-Up Center for Biotechnology (IZB) in Martinsried near Munich, offering a perfect place to implement new ideas and connect with other founders and biotech companies.

adivo is a German biotech company based in Martinsried near Munich specializing in generating species-specific therapeutic antibodies for companion animals. The adivo team aims to initially address high medical needs in dogs including cancer and chronic inflammation, with the potential of expanding activities into the development of therapeutics for other species in the future. Using its fully canine-based antibody library, adivo, either alone or with partners, intends to generate therapeutics for dogs that are well tolerated and efficacious as well as to continuously improve its technology.

About HTGF

High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With EUR 886 million in total investment volume across three funds (EUR 272 million in HTGF I, EUR 304 million in HTGF II, and a targeted volume of EUR 310 million for HTGF III) and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge close to 500 start-ups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in a range of sectors, including software, media, internet, hardware, automation, health care, chemicals and life sciences.

This group also includes a number of success stories, such as Mister Spex, Rigontec, 6Wunderkinder, Next Kraftwerke and Cumulocity, as well as Juniqe, an online shop for art enthusiasts. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 1.5 billion into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,200 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in more than 90 companies.

Occident Group is an international, privately held investment company based in Zug (Switzerland). Occident’s goal is to manage its own wealth in a sustainable, meaningful manner seeking to make a positive contribution to society through the investments. A young, dynamic team of experts nurtures a portfolio of ventures, properties, real assets and securities. Occident’s venture capital investment decisions are driven by a strong orientation towards the future and by the fascination for founders who can take a good idea and build it into a great enterprise. As a partner for start-ups and founders, Occident offers strong financial backing, a long-term outlook and wide-ranging areas of expertise. More at www.occident.group

The company is located in the Innovation and Start-Up Center for Biotechnology (IZB) in Martinsried near Munich, offering a perfect place to implement new ideas and connect with other founders and biotech companies.